Athletics at the 1979 Pan American Games

Athletics at the VIII Pan American Games
Dates	7–14 July
Host city	San Juan, Puerto Rico
Venue	Estadio Sixto Escobar
Events	39
Participation	380 athletes from 30 nations
← Mexico City 1975 Caracas 1983 → 1979 Pan American Games

Athletics competitions at the 1979 Pan American Games in San Juan were held from July 7 to 14 ^[1] at the Estadio Sixto Escobar. ^[2]

Medalists

Key
GR	Pan American Games record

Men's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres (wind: +1.5 m/s) details	Silvio Leonard   Cuba	10.13	Harvey Glance   United States	10.19	Emmit King   United States	10.30
200 metres (wind: +3.9 m/s) details	Silvio Leonard   Cuba	20.37	James Gilkes   Guyana	20.46	Don Coleman   United States	20.56
400 metres details	Tony Darden   United States	45.11	Alberto Juantorena   Cuba	45.24	Willie Smith   United States	45.3
800 metres details	James Robinson   United States	1:46.3 GR	Alberto Juantorena   Cuba	1:46.4	Agberto Guimarães   Brazil	1:46.8
1500 metres details	Don Paige   United States	3:40.4 GR	Todd Harbour   United States	3:41.5	Agberto Guimarães   Brazil	3:41.5
5000 metres details	Matt Centrowitz   United States	14:01.0	Herb Lindsay   United States	14:04.1	Rodolfo Gómez   Mexico	14:05.0
10,000 metres details	Rodolfo Gómez   Mexico	29:02.4	Enrique Aquino   Mexico	29:03.9	Frank Shorter   United States	29:06.4
110 metres hurdles (wind: +2.0 m/s) details	Renaldo Nehemiah   United States	13.20 GR	Alejandro Casañas   Cuba	13.46	Charles Foster   United States	13.56
400 metres hurdles details	James Walker   United States	49.66	Antônio Dias Ferreira   Brazil	50.85	Frank Montiéh   Cuba	51.30
3000 metres steeplechase details	Henry Marsh   United States	8:43.6	William McCullough   United States	8:44.7	Demetrio Cabanillos   Mexico	8:52.4
4 × 100 metres relay details	United States Mike Roberson Harvey Glance Cliff Wiley Steve Riddick	38.85	Cuba Osvaldo Lara Alejandro Casañas Silvio Leonard Juan Saborit	39.14	Brazil Milton de Castro Nelson dos Santos Rui da Silva Altevir de Araújo	39.44
4 × 400 metres relay details	United States James Walker Herman Frazier Maurice Peoples Tony Darden	3:03.8	Jamaica Ian Stapleton Floyd Brown Bert Cameron Colin Bradford	3:04.7	Cuba Frank Montiéh Carlos Álvarez Alberto Juantorena Pedro Tanis	3:06.3
Marathon details	Radamés González   Cuba	2:24:09	Luis Barbosa   Colombia	2:24:44	Rich Hughson   Canada	2:25:34
20 kilometres walk details	Daniel Bautista   Mexico	1:28:15 GR	Neal Pyke   United States	1:30:17	Todd Scully   United States	1:32:30
50 kilometres walk details	Raúl González   Mexico	4:05:17 GR	Martín Bermúdez   Mexico	4:11:13	Marco Evoniuk   United States	4:24:20
High jump details	Franklin Jacobs   United States	2.26 GR	Benn Fields   United States	2.19	Milton Ottey   Canada	2.19
Pole vault details	Bruce Simpson   Canada	5.15	Greg Woepse   United States	5.05	Brian Morrissette   Virgin Islands	4.85
Long jump details	João Carlos de Oliveira   Brazil	8.18	David Giralt   Cuba	8.15	Carl Lewis   United States	8.13
Triple jump details	João Carlos de Oliveira   Brazil	17.27	Willie Banks   United States	16.88	James Butts   United States	16.69
Shot put details	Dave Laut   United States	20.22 GR	Bishop Dolegiewicz   Canada	19.67	Bruno Pauletto   Canada	19.61
Discus throw details	Mac Wilkins   United States	63.30	Bradley Cooper   Bahamas	62.16 GR	Luis Delís   Cuba	61.70
Hammer throw details	Scott Neilson   Canada	69.64 GR	Armando Orozco   Cuba	68.48	Genovevo Morejón   Cuba	67.66
Javelin throw details	Duncan Atwood   United States	84.16 GR	Antonio González   Cuba	84.12	Raúl Pupo   Cuba	81.96
Decathlon details	Bobby Coffman   United States	8078 GR	Tito Steiner   Argentina	7638	Zenon Smiechowski   Canada	7337

Women's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres (wind: +0.9 m/s) details	Evelyn Ashford   United States	11.07	Brenda Morehead   United States	11.11	Angella Taylor   Canada	11.36
200 metres (wind: +2.2 m/s) details	Evelyn Ashford   United States	22.24	Angella Taylor   Canada	22.74	Merlene Ottey   Jamaica	22.79
400 metres details	Sharon Dabney   United States	51.81	June Griffith   Guyana	51.81	Patricia Jackson   United States	52.32
800 metres details	Essie Kelley   United States	2:01.2 GR	Julie Brown   United States	2:01.2	Aurelia Pentón   Cuba	2:02.1
1500 metres details	Mary Decker   United States	4:05.7 GR	Julie Brown   United States	4:06.4	Penny Werthner   Canada	4:14.8
3000 metres details	Jan Merrill   United States	8:53.6 GR	Julie Brown   United States	8:59.9	Geri Fitch   Canada	9:35.7
100 metres hurdles (wind: +3.9 m/s) details	Deby LaPlante   United States	12.90	Sharon Lane   Canada	13.56	Grisel Machado   Cuba	13.60
4 × 100 metres relay details	United States Valerie Brisco Karen Hawkins Chandra Cheeseborough Brenda Morehead	43.30	Jamaica Lelieth Hodges Rosie Allwood Carmetta Drummond Merlene Ottey	44.18	Cuba Marta Zulueta Silvia Chivás Isabel Taylor Eloína Echevarría	46.26
4 × 400 metres relay details	United States Sharon Dabney Patricia Jackson Rosalyn Bryant Essie Kelley	3:29.4 GR	Cuba Ana Fidelia Quirot Nery McKeen Ana Luisa Guibert Aurelia Pentón	3:36.3a	Canada Micheline Racette Marita Payne Jeanette Wood Anne Mackie-Morelli	3:37.6a
High jump details	Louise Ritter   United States	1.93 GR	Pam Spencer   United States	1.87	Debbie Brill   Canada	1.85
Long jump details	Kathy McMillan   United States	6.46	Ana Alexander   Cuba	6.31	Eloína Echevarría   Cuba	6.27
Shot put details	María Elena Sarría   Cuba	18.81 GR	Maren Seidler   United States	18.57	Carmen Ionesco   Canada	16.50
Discus throw details	Carmen Romero   Cuba	60.58 GR	María Cristina Betancourt   Cuba	60.44	Carmen Ionesco   Canada	57.14
Javelin throw details	María Caridad Colón   Cuba	62.30 GR	Lynn Cannon   United States	56.18	Cathy Sulinski   United States	55.82
Pentathlon details	Diane Konihowski   Canada	4605	Jodi Anderson   United States	4434	Jill Ross   Canada	4112

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	25	16	11	52
2	Cuba	6	10	9	25
3	Canada	3	3	12	18
4	Mexico	3	2	2	7
5	Brazil	2	1	3	6
6	Jamaica	0	2	1	3
7	Guyana	0	2	0	2
8	Argentina	0	1	0	1
	Bahamas	0	1	0	1
	Colombia	0	1	0	1
11	Virgin Islands	0	0	1	1
Totals (11 entries)		39	39	39	117

Participating nations

•   Antigua and Barbuda (7)
•   Argentina (14)
•   Bahamas (3)
•   Barbados (5)
•   Bermuda (6)
•   Bolivia (1)
•   Brazil (26)
•   Canada (50)
•   Chile (13)
•   Colombia (6)
•   Costa Rica (5)
•   Cuba (50)
•   Dominican Republic (11)
•   Ecuador (2)
•   Guatemala (1)
•   Guyana (3)
•   Honduras (8)
•   Jamaica (17)
•   Mexico (15)
•   Panama (2)
•   Paraguay (1)
•   Peru (1)
•   Puerto Rico (41)
•   El Salvador (3)
•   Suriname (1)
•   Trinidad and Tobago (9)
•   United States (68)
•   Virgin Islands (8)
•   Uruguay (2)
•   Venezuela (1)

References

1. Memoria VIII Juegos Deportivos Panamericanos San Juan, Puerto Rico 1979 (PDF) (in Spanish). 1979 Pan American Games Organising Committee (COPAN 79). 1981. p. 231. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-08-11. Retrieved 2019-08-11.
2. Memoria VIII Juegos Deportivos Panamericanos San Juan, Puerto Rico 1979 (PDF) (in Spanish). 1979 Pan American Games Organising Committee (COPAN 79). 1981. p. 197. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-08-11. Retrieved 2019-08-11.

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